We’ve all experienced it. It’s frigid. It’s fierce. And it’s no fun. It is getting the cold shoulder and this painting depicts it perfectly.

Roy Lichtenstein brings this melodramatic moment to us using Ben-Day dots, which are the areas of dotted colors that make up the pictures that you see in comic strips, and the style for which Lichtenstein is most famous. This style came about in a way you wouldn't expect. Lichtenstein’s son, when looking at a Mickey Mouse comic strip, said, “I bet you can’t paint as good as that, eh, Dad” And the rest is history. Lichtenstein’s dots are a defining part of the Pop art movement.

Roy Lichtenstein, to the disappointment of snooty art people, brought “low art” such as comics and advertisements to “high art,” which is much too good for all of that. This resulted in Life Magazine titling a 1964 article, “Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?” They were only half kidding. At the time there were critics who believed that Lichtenstein’s work was unoriginal and mindless. Boy were they wrong!

This painting is of a woman who is uber pissed at whoever she isn’t facing, and she’s not about to turn around to give us the satisfaction of seeing her face. It was this kind of argument that inspired artists like Adele to belt, “Hello from the othersideeeee.” And we can joke about it because Lichtenstein himself didn’t take his art too seriously. He was quoted as saying, “I don’t think that whatever is meant by the artist it is important to art.” Whether or not he believes that is up to you, but it reeks of false modesty to me.